As the Thanksgiving Holiday approaches, we will be looking for a pet sitter. We need someone to come in on Thanksgiving Day, the Friday after, Saturday and Sunday. As you may know, we have as sweet, gentle dog and two cats who need some attention twice a day.

We're always happy to pay for services or to do an exchange of pet sitting. We'll be in town the days leading up to and including Christmas day. Just not the day after. So we can do some pet sitting in kind on those days.

Received a friendly letter in the mail from Time Warner that they would be increasing our internet rate if we did not combine our internet with their phone service or cable.

I don't want cable and I already have a phone service so Time Warner can screw themselves. What we actually said to Time Warner is that we will be dropping them if they rase our rates. They didn't seem to care. So off we go to find a new internet service provider.

The next obvious choice seems to be Verizon. Any other internet service providers we should be considering? Maybe a local Buffalo provider?

In reference to e:paul,46588

Leviticus is an interesting book of the bible and one that kept me thoroughly entertained during church services when I was too young to follow the sermon.

e:Paul asked, "Why not edit the book and just have a whole new book?"

I was totally dismissive of the Old Testament for a while and totally ignored it. But now I appreciate how the entire bible gives great context and insight to the teachings of Jesus and his apostle Paul.

Take for example this story from the gospel of Mark.

A woman who has been bleeding for 12 years is in a crowd surrounding Jesus. She reaches out and touches his cloak and is healed. He asks who touched him and the woman in fear admits that it was her. He says, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

She approaches in fear because according to Leviticus she is unclean and shouldn't be going around touching people and people's stuff. Now she's made this man who's a teacher "unclean". So she's expecting Jesus to be pissed off. But nope, Jesus healed her and treated her with compassion.

WITHOUT the context of Leviticus, we can see that Jesus is compassionate and brings healing to the sick.

WITH the context of Leviticus, we see that he is much more than a compassionate healer. He is revolutionary. He brings healing to a suffering woman despite her "uncleanliness" which is in direct contradiction to the law of the land and in direct contradiction to what everyone in the crowd practices. He offers hope to people who suffer under the law - which was never meant to burden people, but had been twisted in such a way that it did.

I just set my hair on fire. Yikes! Singed hair smells yucky.

We're driving to Illinois for Thanksgiving.

This afternoon we're driving to Indianapolis and tomorrow morning we'll be up at the crack of dawn to finish the trip to Illinois.

Flying to my hometown would be more convenient and take less time, but more expense and less fun.

We'll be driving out of western New York and into the hills of Ohio. Then come the flat farmlands of Indiana and that's my first signal that we're almost home. The vast farmland stretching out as far as I can see is warm and comfortable. At this point, I put down my book I'm reading and I just watch the landscape and wide open sky go by.

In Indiana, we stop at the Amish cheese store. A little shack. With its own exit off the interstate. Every cheese imaginable. All made by the Amish. Incredibly good. We buy all the favorite cheeses for ourselves and my family.

We cross the state and eventually come to the Indiana Visitor Center at the Indiana-Illinois border. I feel nostalgic and happy when we cross the state line. We'll drive by small towns where I traveled for track meets and basketball games and marching band competitions. A nice way to spend a childhood.

We'll spend a few days in my childhood home. It feels comfortable, but new at the same time. After my time there, I'll remember why I needed to leave it behind. But I'm happy that it's a warm place to return.

I enjoyed my drive to Illinois.

I spent time over beer with my good high school friends.

I've had my Steak n Shake fix.

I'm gonna go to Avantis to grab some food for the drive home.

I had fun with my family, but I also endured my family.

And now I'm ready to go home to Buffalo.